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Saturday, July 30, 2016

Interest in essential oils and Aromatherapy has skyrocketed in recent
years. Available in every natural foods store, online or through independent
distributors, and seen as a readily-accessible form of Medicine for the People,
the healing power of essential oils appeals to many. The DIY crowd makes use of
essential oils in homemade beauty and home cleaning recipes. Homesteaders and
preppers tout the powerful effects of essential oils in healing humans and
their animals without Big Pharm. Natural soap makers scent their handmade bars
with essential oils. New Age moms spray essential oil blends on their excitable
children on national television. Suddenly, it seems, essential oils are
everywhere, in vogue and in demand.

More than just an extension of herbalism, Aromatherapy is a branch of
Botanical Medicine, with the focus on the "essence" of the plant
expressed through its volatile oils secreted through special glands in one or
several parts of aromatic plants. These essences bring defense and nourishment
against climatic and pestilent factors. Miraculously, these same plant essences
resonate for us, holistically supporting us in Body, Mind and Spirit.

Essential oils can be extracted from seeds, roots, leaves, bark, wood,
fruit and blossoms, with blossoms offering the most complex and fragile scents.
Great quantities of plant material are steam distilled, cold pressed or solvent
extracted, capturing most, but not all, of the chemical elements of each
plant's particular medicine. Different plants, and different parts of a plant,
yield varying amounts of essential oil; while the leaves of peppermint or the
rind of an orange offer up generous amounts of essential oils to the distiller,
it can take 60,000 roses to produce just one ounce of essential oil! All of these
essences are extremely concentrated, and can range in cost from just a few
dollars an ounce to several hundred dollars for a vial the size of your
thumbnail. Proper use of these precious, powerful essences requires education
and a commitment to safe practices.

Rosemary needles with minuscule "dots" of essential oil visible. Thanks to Cory Trusty for the photo.

I will tell you up front that, while I am a practicing certified
aromatherapist with clients across the country, I have no affiliation with any
company that sells essential oils. I became interested in aromatherapy as a
healing modality back in 1986, when people in the United States were just
starting to become aware of essential oils and how they could be used to
powerfully benefit our health and well-being. Back then there were few
essential oil suppliers; at the time, I was working for a major health and
beauty company and my first half-dozen or so bottles of essential oils were
sent to me by a contact at our fragrance supply house. Judith Jackson's book,
Scentual Touch, had just been published, introducing Americans to the British
tradition of aromatic massage using essential oils. An acquaintance from
England sent me a copy of Robert Tisserand's The Art of Aromatherapy. I
committed myself to learning all I could about essential oils, and in 2001,
embarked on a rigorous year-long study of Aromatherapy from a Chinese Medical
Perspective, taught at NYC's Ambrosia Foundation by the respected Dr. Jeffrey
Yuen. For one weekend every month I sat in a classroom with medical doctors,
acupuncturists, massage therapists and healers as we learned about the properties
of a hundred or so essential oils, proper dilution rates, application protocol
and the influence of essential oils on the processes of Body, Mind and Spirit.
It was the best training I could have received.

Eight years later, a notice about a weekend workshop caught my eye. Learn
to safely apply undiluted essential oils for maximum, radical healing! What did
these people know that I did not? I signed up, determined to go in with a
beginner's mind.

What I witnessed there sent my head spinning. As bottle after bottle of
pure, undiluted essential oils was passed around the circle of students, we
were encouraged to smell each oil and apply liberally. One enthusiastic woman
literally poured each of the oils freely up and down her arm, onto her chest,
her legs, until there was not one patch of skin left unannointed. Neither of
the workshop leaders said a word, nor did they make a move to stop her. This
was anathema to the careful training I had received. My hand shot up, almost
involuntarily. Isn't that a dangerous amount of essential oil for the body to
process? No, I was assured, and was dismissed with some BS about an absorption
ratio of drops applied vs how much actually gets into the body before a certain
amount is lost to evaporation. OK, I thought, it's your show, and shut my
mouth. Next day, twenty weekend workshop attendees were "certified"
in Medicinal Aromatherapy (!) and released into the world to practice what
little they had learned - but not before we had placed and paid for our orders
of essential oils. Cost to become a distributor? $6,000 in product purchases
annually or risk loss of certification. And we wouldn't even receive our
certificate until we each wrote a monograph, a highly-researched paper, on the
essential oil of our choice. I chose to do neither, cut my losses, and moved
on.

Two things became apparent to me at that workshop. The first was that there
are many, many of us hungry for knowledge concerning the powerful gifts of
Aromatherapy. The second thing I learned first hand is that not every company
that sells essential oils operates with integrity and has their client's best
interests at heart.

The popularity of Aromatherapy and the lucrative potential for profit
entices many companies to enter the marketplace to try and cash in, flooding
the market with essential oils of sometimes questionable quality, marketing
hype and misinformation. Neither Young Living nor doTerra, two of the most
popular MLM (multi-level marketing) companies hosted that fated workshop; it
was run by distributors for another MLM company that prides itself on the very
expensive, single essence boutique oils it sells to upscale clients to
"aid in their Ascension". Yet the approach of each of these companies
is similar: offer exclusive "therapeutic quality" essential oils,
spread misinformation promoting the ingestion and application of undiluted or
barely diluted essential oils, and offer kits, "wholesale" pricing,
and related health products to make it easy for overwhelmed beginners to jump
right in and start treating themselves and their friends and families. Many
customers buy into the hype so completely they will look no further, convinced
the company propaganda is the last word on Aromatherapy. Information on safe
practices found elsewhere may conflict with that promoted by irresponsible
parties, and may well be ignored.

Agendas like that can open the door to disaster.

Neat, or undiluted, essential oils on the skin or in the body can produce
several unwelcome consequences: phototoxicity, sensitization, chemical burns,
acute respiratory distress syndrome, acute liver failure and central nervous
system stimulation or depression, to name a few. Ingestion of essential oils
can cause damage to mucous membranes, the esophagus and the stomach lining, as
well as coma and even death. Essential oils are not water-soluble and will not
disperse in water; drinking water that has had even one drop of essential oil
added to it, or an essential oil-filled capsule that has been swallowed, can
deliver a blob of undiluted oil to the stomach, potentially causing an internal
chemical burn that can result in permanent damage. I'll never forget the
cautionary demonstration of the potential for harm illustrated on the first day
of Aromatherapy school. One drop of peppermint oil was added to a styrofoam cup
that had been filled with water. In less than ten minutes, the cup itself had
been completely eroded at the water line by the peppermint oil floating on top
of the water!

Marge Clark is the owner of Nature's Gift, a company that sells a wide
range of pure essential oils and related aromatherapy products and boasts one
of the most informative websites on the Internet. She experienced firsthand
what it is to become sensitized to an essential oil. In her case, it was to her
beloved lavender. "Twenty years ago almost every authority said that
Lavender essential oil could be used neat (undiluted.) I believed them, used
undiluted lavender on broken skin. As a result of this unwise over use, I am
sensitized to the components of lavender for, I suppose, the rest of my
life.If I use Lavender, or other high
linalol oils, topically, even in very low dilution, my body will react to the
"invader" with contact dermatitis that can take a long time to
heal.Those who suggest neat use of these
powerful healing oils have no respect for their strength."

Children and the elderly are especially at risk to the adverse effects of
improper use of essential oils and can easily fall victim to well-meaning
caretakers who unwittingly administer these oils in an unsafe manner. Recently,
the Tennessee Poison Center stated they have seen essential oil mishaps double
in the past four years, with 80% of those cases involving children. The primary
route of poisoning is by accidental ingestion, but poisoning may also occur
through excessive or inappropriate application to the skin. All essential oils
can produce oral and throat irritation, nausea, and vomiting when ingested or
improperly used. The yearly Essential Oil Injury Report, maintained by the
Atlantic Institute of Aromatherapy, is full of horrifying stories such as this:
"Undiluted oils applied to small sore:"blend/frankincense" was used and next day skin turned red,
bubbled up and peeled. When concerns were voiced she was told it was
"detox, that there's no way to be allergic or have a bad reaction to the
oil since they are natural."

"Natural" does not always mean safe, and more is not always
better. The Essential Oils Desk Reference, a product catalog cleverly disguised
as an Aromatherapy textbook published by Young Living's Essential Science
Publishing, recommends diluting essential oils 50/50 (essential oil to carrier
oil) only if the oils are marked SI (skin irritant). Some oils are "so
mild they can be used undiluted, even on infants"(Third Edition, page 279). In the rigorous
training I received, we discussed maximum dilution rates for every single
essential oil we covered; this rate varied from oil to oil, but the maximum
usage rate never exceeding 8%. Usage rates for children and the elderly are
generally half that recommended for healthy adults, with some oils
contraindicated for whole sections of the population! Proper education here is
vital - no healer wants to inadvertently poison or cause harm to their loved
ones.

In Europe and Australia, where Aromatherapy is recognized by the government
and insurance agencies as a viable health practice, there are guidelines for
safe sales and practice; not so here in the United States. I see this as a
double-edged sword. While we are free to purchase essential oils and practice
to the best of our abilities, there are no guidelines in place for purity and
quality assurance, and no licensing for practitioners. Aromatherapy is a
powerful healing modality that demands we approach with respect and caution. It
is incumbent upon every would-be Aromatherapist to educate herself to the very
best of her ability, to seek out and support suppliers who sell quality
essential oils with integrity and humility, and to practice with joy, gratitude
and restraint.

- Lisa Marie Layman is a Certified Aromatherapist, Beekeeper and ProductFormulator. She lives with her husband and son and a yard full of honeybees in
New York's beautiful Hudson River Valley. You may reach her at
LisaMarieLayman@gmail.com

Thursday, July 28, 2016

One of my favorite coworkers partaking in a herbal treat I brought her from Mom's garden.

So lately I have been working a regular nine to five every
few days along with working with TEH and The Rosemary House. It is definitely
nice to have a change of pace and has given me new respect for those who work
in front of a computer all day. With office work, though, comes plenty of
office sickness. There is always someone with a chill, a cough, and ache, or a
sniffle. While I have definitely stuck to my Astragalus tincture, fire cider,
and herbal teas it’s difficult for me not to offer herbal remedies to my
coworkers. I’ve been taking herbal remedies since I was little and it is
difficult not to share the benefits. While some are willing to try many of them
are resistant to the point that I have stopped offering. I have been able to
sway some to the herbal side, however.

Practice what you preach

The best thing I can do to show people that the herbs I use
work is to use them. There is a whole stack of herbal tea bags on my desk and a
Joie de Vivre elixir by my side for when projects build up. I also use plenty
of salves during the winter to keep my hands from getting dry and incense for
when the office smells like someone’s leftovers. While this is beneficial for
me my coworkers have also noticed that I haven’t been sick since I started
(knocks on wood) and will often ask me for advice. Leading by example has
definitely been the main reason people have begun using herbal remedies in my
office but I also have a few other tricks up my sleeve.

Make it tasty

Not everyone wants to take a tincture or elixir. For those
of us who aren’t already taking them, these remedies taste bitter, harsh, or
too “green.” Because of this I have started giving the preparations in other
ways. People are much more susceptible to teas, syrups, and candies. By using
my elderberry jams and syrups on my bagels in the morning I have been more
comfortable offering my coworkers a taste. They usually are more than happy to
try a new sweet treat and will often ask where I found it. Candies are perfect
as well. Everyone loves candy! My mother makes delicious hard candies that I
adore. If you do not have a candy thermometer, however, herbal candies are
readily available in any health food store or the organic section of grocery
stores. I suggest starting with a lemon balm or lavender and honey candy and
working up to elderberry and holy basil. That’ll help prepare their palettes.

Make it pretty

When I do offer a tincture or elixir I have found that if I
use neat or fancy packaging people are more willing to take it. If they are
willing to try something when you pack it up that night give it a label like,
“Karen’s Sniffle Tea” or “ Andy’s Serenity Now Tincture.” Then add the
ingredients onto the label and finish up. They will be so happy you thought of
them and will be eager to give it a shot. Who knows, they may ask for more!

It’s OK if they say no

And you may not want to accept it but it is ok if and when
they say no. I have a few coworkers that refuse to try my herbal goodies and
that is totally ok. Not everyone grew up with alternative medicines or folklore
that their family used to stay healthy. Many families often told their kids to
pop and aspirin and take a break. Even more believed that home remedies were
poppycock compared to modern medicine. Luckily those times are changing and
plenty of people my age are beginning to learn more and more about herbalism.
But until everyone sees the green light, I refuse to pressure people to take
something they are uncomfortable with. So let them sniffle and cough and
wheeze. They’ll eventually surrender when they see you happy and healthy.

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

So since I’ve moved to my house in Lancaster I started my
first garden. It is small and is definitely suffering from my learning
experience but with time it has become a sweet and interesting bunch of little
plants. Each plant has had the determination to grow despite my random weeks
away and constant rearranging. Each plant has its own personality and each
plant has a great story. I love each one of them and I’m always eager to see
them every afternoon when I get home from work.

My boyfriend’s mother gave me the Echinacea plants that now
by my front door. She remembered how much I loved the patch out front of his
old house and wanted to make sure I had some when Ken and I moved in together.
While most are growing happily two are struggling. These two I have gotten a
bit of babying and seem to be on the mend. Just yesterday I had two neighbors
come up and tell me how much they love my flowers so I know I have to be doing
something right.

Lemon Balm

Lavender

Catnip

Rosemary

Chocolate Mint

In our backyard I have chocolate mint, lemon balm, rosemary,
catnip, and lavender growing in little containers. I love these plants and
while they are not flourishing has I had hoped they are still very happy in
their little spot in the garden. Lavender and rosemary are both thrilled with
the sunshine and my mint and catnip are thrilled to be in their new containers.
Lemon balm has been a little fussy but seems to be coming back to life now that
I planted it under a tree we inherited. Hopefully it will grow so I can harvest
some leaves before fall!

What were/are your first gardens like? How are the gardens
you have now doing?

Monday, July 11, 2016

All of us took our turns over the last 11 days working at the booth we share with The Rosemary House at the Kutztown Folk Festival. We worked for a good month getting ready for it, so when I tell you that things around here need attention, I am not kidding.

Maryanne and Molly discuss strategy before the festival opens.

This morning I set out to weed-whack around the front garden so that Molly could mow close to the edge. There in the center had somehow arrived some beautiful, lush, wild bergamot, Monarda fistulosa.

We have it growing down by the pond, so perhaps a bird gifted it to me, closer to the house so that it's easier to get to. We have a more decorative variety growing near the door. One of the didymas. Maybe "blue stockings."

Anyhow, it was the perfect time to harvest. In a few minutes I'll head back out and gather more to dry for the winter and to add to different teas.

First though, a pint of tincture. I will label it better shortly. The labels are all downstairs, and the jar will be headed there soon too.

We like to have it around because it has a very high thymol content, so can be used similarly to oregano and thyme medicinally OR culinarily. All of the different bergamots (various beautiful colors) can be used as a flavoring or garnish. Tea made from leaves and flowers is very strongly flavored, and in my opinion is best used as part of a blend because of that, and also needs some honey. The wild lavender colored variety is thought to be the most medicinally active variety.